Japanese is a peculiar language compared to those I've learned. There is a lot to it and if you think you're going to master it easily, you're kidding yourself. I've now been in immersion class for about a month - it's been an interesting ride. The first thing I and almost everyone else learns is the Hiragana alphabet. Using this alphabet, you can, in theory, write Japanese. You're expected to learn this on your own before you start a Japanese class. I learned it about a year and a half ago and this has made the transition to class a lot easier. With Hiragana, you could, for example write "kuruma" which means "car." It looks like this: くるま。Hiragana is pretty straightforward, Japanese is spelled like it sounds.
